The People Chose Speciality Stitches

Regular followers will be aware that for over 3 years now I have run a themed SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  First we spent 26 months doing The Alphabet Club and then 12 months of the Zodiac.  Now I have decided to listen to the People and post about your choice of theme.  Each month I ask for suggestions on the blog and then make a poll in the IHSW Facebook Group from those suggestions.

April - Speciality Stitches

May - Flowers

June - Mermaids

Here's a fun fact - in England we call them Speciality Stitches pronounced speci-ality but in America I have noticed your penchant for missing out letters and you call them Specialty Stitches and pronounce it special-tee.  So now my European friends know if they speak English or American!

But what are they?  Basically anything which isn't a cross stitch.  From a simple Symrna Stitch (an X with a vertical cross on top) to the Queen's Stitch and Jessica Stitches encompassing the dreaded French Knot!

A lot of these stitches are commonly found in embroidery and have crossed over into counted cross stitch to add interest and texture to a piece.

Most charts which use them will have a diagram showing how to stitch the speciality stitches but if you want to learn more then this is a great website with some nice clear diagrams - Nordic Needle - Stitch Dictionary

According to my Happy Dance Blog the first designs I tried with speciality stitches were a series of four from Shepherd's Bush in 1998.  This one is Mistletoe:

You can see the others on the Happy Dance blog here - Come Happy Dance With Me - Shepherd's Bush.

Around about the same time I went on a stitching retreat where the class project was this Autumn Sampler.  We stayed in a lovely converted barn rented by two sisters.  One was a former owner of a needlework shop and the other was a chef.  So the food was delicious.  During the day we stitched this Jane Greenoff design called Woodland Walk (No 234C).  This is described as a piece for "the accomplished stitcher" as it involves a lot of speciality stitches as well as hardanger.

stitched on unbleached 28 count linen

Purple Algerian Eyes

White Smyrna Stitches

French Knots and Bullion Stitches in the flowers

White Hardanger 

Beaded Blackberries

Maroon Half Rhodes

Rice Stitch with metallic

Queen Stitch Flower Border 

Green French Knots in Trees

Coloured Hardanger  

Close-up of the French Knots: 

There is also a gold acorn charm to attach at the top of the piece.  I liked the sampler but have always felt it looked a little sparse and planned to add some extra motifs or bands.  But let's be honest - after 20 years that is not going to happen! So I will just frame it as it as and get it on display.

If you want to have a go at speciality stitches and feel a little daunted by them, why not try a small?  This Drawn Thread freebie is only 3 x 2 inches but has 14 different stitches within it!

Drawn Thread - All You Need is Love

Or you could go large and have a go at this WIP of mine - Around the World in 80 Stitches by Papillon Creations:

Excuse the poor quality picture, it was a scan off my printer to capture the colours correctly.

There are some beautiful versions in the Gallery on their wesbsite.  One day this will be a finish!

Now it's over to you. All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Speciality Stitches, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog. Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog. I look forward to seeing what you all post.

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Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll.  Any thing, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll.  Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Cats, or Blue, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.  Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!